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Mr. Larry Hearn has joined Creative to launch and lead the Workforce Development Practice Area within Creative’s Economic Growth Group.
Mr. Hearn has over 17 years of experience in international development, most of which was spent in senior management positions leading USAID-funded projects overseas. Most recently, Mr. Hearn served as the Deputy Program Director for Operations as well as the Managing Director for Workforce and Organizational Development at the American Institutes for Research.
He has also served as the Deputy Chief of Party and Director of Professional Services, USAID/Ukraine, Public-Private Partnership Development Program (P3DP); Chief of Party, USAID/Jordan, Aqaba Community and Economic Development Program; Chief of Party, USAID/Armenia, Residential Heating Project; Chief of Party, USAID/Egypt, Agricultural Exports and Rural Incomes (AERI); Chief of Party, USAID/Egypt, Partners for a Competitive Egypt (PfCE); and Chief of Party, USAID/Egypt, Management Development Initiative (MDI). The MDI project won the USAID Human Capacity Development Project of the Year Award in 2000.
Mr. Hearn has an MA in Education from the University of North Texas, and MBA from the University of Texas, and a BS in Engineering from Texas A&M University. He holds a Human Performance Improvement Certification.
Welcome to Creative, Larry![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
The USAID Community Livelihoods Project (CLP) is leading a seven-member Yemeni coffee sector delegation’s participation in the international conference on specialty coffee in Boston, Massachusetts slated on April 10-14, 2013. The event is hosted by the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA). Stakeholders and coffee experts from all over the world will participate in the Boston conference and will discuss issues related to coffee quality and marketing.
In its efforts to improve coffee and agriculture in Yemen, the Community Livelihoods Project has developed a partnership with the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI), a nonprofit organization working internationally to improve the quality of coffee and the lives of the people who produce it through training and technical assistance to increase the value, volume, and sustainability of high quality coffee production.
To continue the conversation on the introduction of Yemeni coffee to the international coffee market, a reception will be held next week in Washington D.C. to discuss the Yemeni coffee sector and opportunities for growth with an audience that includes representatives from the US Congress, Yemeni government, USAID Washington, and the private sector.
Ingrid Graves (Washington, DC)
“There is one universal truth, applicable to all countries, cultures and communities: violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable, never tolerable.”United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon chose these words to introduce “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women,” this year’s theme for International Women’s Day. His message to strengthen this commitment resonates universally because it connects women at the human level.
Linked by their common humanity, women across borders play a central role in their societies, especially those recovering from conflict. (more…)
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“I’m especially pleased by Morocco’s commitments to take on the deeply troubling problem of child marriage. We know that child brides are less likely to get an education, more likely to face life-threatening problems, particularly around child birth and delivery, which not only shortchanges them but can even rob them and their communities of their lives and talents. “
With these words at the Opening Plenary of the U.S.-Morocco Strategic Dialogue, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged to Foreign Minister Saad-Eddine Al-Othmani his country’s efforts to address and end the practice of child marriage. In her opening remarks, Secretary Clinton referenced the long history of partnership that exists between the United States and Morocco, dating back to 1777, and the mutual interest both countries presently have to engage, educate, and give opportunity to youth.
The story of Aziza and Fatima tangibly demonstrates the positive outcome of such mutual efforts by both governments. Aziza and Fatima are 15 years old and live in the villages of Douar Lkhmirate and Douar Ouled El Khadi in the Moroccan countryside, 15 km from Ibn Baja, the middle school they attend. Last year, the girls faced a very similar and striking experience: Their parents forced them to leave school for primarily financial reasons. The parents did not believe they could find the means to pay for lodging the following year, as the girls were assigned to a high school in El Jadida, a distance too far to travel daily.
Moroccan law very clearly prohibits marriage for those under the legal age of 18. However, in rural areas, enforcement proves at times more challenging. Because they did not plan for their daughter to continue to high school, Aziza’s parents arranged for her to marry a worker who lived with the family. In Fatima’s case, her mother believed she should work in the field to help the family and help raise her little sister, since “in any case, she does not have long before she marries and has her own children.”
In school though, Aziza and Fatima had participated in a USAID life skills/employability club. When Aziza and Fatima’s peers noticed their long absence, they quickly understood that they needed help: “We learned to think of others and try to help others. These are human values that we learned thanks to the club and that brought us together.”
One day, their peers from the club organized their thoughts, chose a spokesperson for the group, and went to see the program director to raise awareness of Aziza and Fatima’s circumstances. Together, they visited the two families and convinced the parents to let their daughters finish the school year and continue their education.
When the girls returned after a two month absence, their peers shared their class notes and helped them to make up any missing work, so they could prepare for final exams. Aziza and Fatima both excelled and were able to find lodging close to the high school at El Jadida. Thanks to this program, Aziza and Fatima can continue their studies, choose when to marry, and ultimately build their futures.
—Mounya El Asri and Ingrid Graves, Communications[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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My first experience in an active conflict was in Angola during the height of the war. Though I would later work in over a dozen countries recovering from armed conflict, those experiences would never equal the images I witnessed in Angola. Thirty years of warfare had destroyed the rural countryside and shattered the agricultural livelihoods of the majority of the population. Roads, bridges, schools, stores, government buildings, and irrigation systems had been decimated, and the landscape was littered with bombed out military vehicles. The prolonged conflict displaced hundreds of thousands of people, shattered the social cohesion of rural communities, and undermined trust between neighbors. Landmines maimed adults and children alike, crippling them for life and destroying their livelihoods. In spite of massive oil revenues, extensive diamonds exports, and large scale humanitarian support, recovery of the agricultural sector has to this day been minimal. This baptism of fire into Africa’s longest war brutally introduced me to the exhausting challenges of post-conflict economic recovery.
Twenty years later, numerous other countries have suffered negative consequences from conflict and have struggled to rebuild their economies. In many affected areas, agriculture is the principal livelihood. As implementers, we should ask, what have we learned from the efforts of governments and international agencies to restart agriculture? In 2008, USAID published A Guide to Economic Growth in Post-Conflict Countries, which included a chapter on agriculture, identifying key elements to consider when promoting market-driven agricultural development in post-conflict settings and providing illustrious examples of successful programs. However, since 2008, programming experience has expanded considerably, as has the capacity to monitor and evaluate interventions. We now have an opportunity to take stock of our collective experience, assess, and reflect on how new evidence compares and contrasts to the manual’s guidance.
To this end, Creative U’s Conflict Action Research Network (CARN) hosted a conference entitled “The Role of Agriculture in the Economic Growth of Post-Conflict Countries” on January 14, 2013. Case studies from Rwanda, Iraq, Yemen, and West Bank/Gaza exemplified the diversity of experience as well as the commonality of challenges. Creative’s Community Livelihoods Project (CLP) in Yemen documented the need to adjust to fluctuating conditions, which requires rethinking and reprogramming. In spite of a shifting landscape and changing donor priorities, the CLP team developed and implemented highly effective program activities that directly benefitted large number of farmers and dramatically improved their livelihoods. The other case studies similarly illustrated the importance of being able to adapt quickly to the circumstances on the ground. The manual provides excellent guidelines, but projects must “have their ear close to the ground” in order to respond most effectively to the actual reality on the ground while maintaining a long-term, strategic view.
Future conferences and workshops to discuss further the role of agriculture in economic growth are planned. We hope these discussions will result in a final outcome of thoughtful, well-designed programming that plants seeds of hope for a prosperous and peaceful future.
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[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Over the last two years in what has been termed the “Arab Spring,” the collapse of long-standing regimes in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya has created space for political contestation that citizens in these countries had never before experienced.
Having demonstrated their strength through actions on the street, the citizens of the Arab Spring looked to electoral processes as crucial to legitimizing government, promoting accountability and good governance, as well as contributing to national stability. While elections can serve these needs if administered impartially and in a peaceful environment, they can also de-stabilize nations and de-legitimize governments if mired in conflict and violence. What is more, the potential for violence can keep citizens away from the polls and deter candidates from openly campaigning. Recent events in Libya and other countries evidence that, despite forward progress and remarkable gains across the Arab world, these processes and ongoing transitions remain fragile. This has particular implications for other countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region slated to hold elections in the coming months—should upcoming polls experience conflict and violence, transitions risk being de-railed, and the legitimacy of governments questioned.
Recognizing the threat that violence poses to the integrity of elections, over the past year Creative has been working with state- and non-state stakeholders across the globe to develop strategies to prevent, manage, and mediate election-related conflict and violence. Through a program funded by USAID to help state- and non-state actors in these locations manage potential conflict surrounding upcoming elections, Creative’s Jeff Fischer and Patrick W. Quirk performed electoral security assessments in Afghanistan, Burundi, Guatemala, and the Philippines. In doing so, they used the Electoral Security Framework – Technical Guidance Handbook for Democracy and Governance Officers (Framework), which Creative developed for USAID.
Building on findings from these assessments and extensive interviews with experts across the globe, in January USAID published the Best Practices Guide in Electoral Security – A Guide for Democracy and Governance Programming (Guide). The Guide provides USAID’s development professionals, as well as electoral assistance and conflict prevention policy-makers and practitioners, with a global overview of best practices in programming they may use to devise interventions to prevent, manage, or mediate electoral conflict and violence. Within the context of electoral security, the Guide defines a “best practice” as a policy, practice, or program intervention that has demonstrated measurable results in achieving electoral conflict prevention, management, or mediation. The Guide presents best practices as organized by: 1) electoral phase; 2) thematic area; and 3) policy, practice, or program activity by state and non-state stakeholder.
The Guide is the companion volume to the Framework, which describes an assessment methodology to develop a profile of potential threats to electoral processes so that donors and partner governments can develop programmatic responses to prevent, manage, or mediate such threats. In its work, Creative has used the Framework to perform electoral security assessments in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burundi, Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, the Philippines, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The Framework and Guide are tools that actors in the MENA region and beyond can apply to devise strategies and interventions to prevent, manage, and mediate violence and conflict surrounding upcoming polls and thereby help ensure citizens have the opportunity to express their opinion and tangibly impact their society’s future.
— Patrick W. Quirk, Conflict Management and Mitigation
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Catharine Corbin (Washington, DC)
Originally designed to support the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the Health Education and Reconciliation (HEAR) project is currently in its seventh year of implementation and is building the capacity of community members, government officials, educators, and health workers to foster sustainable access to quality education and health services. Although the English is the language of instruction in South Sudan, many teachers were originally trained in Arabic or other local languages. Through HEAR, teachers build their skills and confidence to teach effectively in English. HEAR has worked in the border regions between the North and South Sudan since 2006 and now implements programming in four northern states in South Sudan. Since South Sudan’s independence in July 2011, the HEAR project has shifted its focus to target internally displaced persons and returnees in the Republic of South Sudan zones of Agok, as well as the surrounding states bordering the North: Warrap, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Western Bahr el Ghazal, and Unity. (more…)